32 



ing qut the problem as a practical undertaking. As in the case of fire 

 protection, the additional measures necessary for forest renewal should 

 be made a part of a systematic program in which the public and private 

 owners engage in a joint undertaking with a common objective. 



The first steps in this undertaking are to determine in each region : 



1. The circumstances under which fire protection alone will not suffice 

 to prevent wasting of the land under prevailing methods of lumbering. 



2. The additional measures necessary to secure conditions favorable 

 for natural renewal. 



3. The classes of land upon which forest growth should be continued. 



4. The co-operation that should be given by the public to make 

 feasible in practice the measures that it may be necessary for the owners 

 to take. 



5. The legislation needed to bring these measures into practice as a 

 part of the State's program of forestry. 



Special Problems in the Central States. In the states of Illinois, Indi- 

 ana and Ohio, our problem is essentially one of the farm woodland. Here 

 we have to do with small tracts and small operations. In some ways the 

 problem is a simpler one than in the great lumber regions. In the first 

 place the fire danger is easily controlled. Then again the work can usu- 

 ally be brought into close correlation with other phases of farm manage- 

 ment. Of great value also is the fact that the owner himself is often the 

 manager and can give personal direction to the work of forestry. 



In such circumstances the aid of the states may be directed to educating 

 the farmer in how to cut his woodland in order to secure natural reproduc- 

 tion, how to thin the young stands so as to increase their growth and 

 value, how to reforest the lands now waste, how best to market his wood- 

 land products, and so on. Advice should be afforded through the State 

 Forester and the agricultural field agents. Planting stock should be 

 offered at cost, with assistance in establishing plantations. Co-operative 

 marketing enterprises should be encouraged when this is practical. 



Public Assistance to Private Owners. As already explained, the public 

 should aid private owners in organized fire protection, in giving direct 

 advice in regard to the methods of handling their properties, and in furn- 

 ishing planting material at cost. 



In many parts of the country the present form of taxation is acting 

 as a detriment to owners' handling the forests conservatively and it even 

 tends to force premature and wasteful cutting. In general, the form of 

 taxation that should be substituted is to levy an annual tax on the land 

 and a yield tax on the timber when it is cut. Each state should give this 

 problem careful study and provide a form of taxation that will encourage 

 the owners to grow trees on their cut-over and waste land. The Federal 

 Government may well give assistance to the states in this study. 



Further assistance could with propriety be given by extending to forests 

 the existing legislation providing for farm loans so as to include loans 

 for the purchase and improvement of forest lands, to encourage the holding 

 of lands previously acquired, where the purpose of the owner is to hold 

 and protect cut-over lands or those having growing timber, to reforest 

 lands by seeding or planting, or to use other measures in promoting forest 

 production. 



